The deep frying of foods is well known. Typically, foods such as fresh chicken, frozen and fresh fish, or fresh and frozen vegetables are cut-up, dusted with a flour mixture, dipped in a flour based batter and then deep-fried in animal fats or vegetable oils, or combinations of these fats and oils, which have been heated to temperatures suitable for frying. Typically, the battered foods are also coated with a bread crumb mixture prior to frying. During frying, the food and the coating are cooked by the exchange of heat from the heated oil to the colder food.
While consumers often prefer the taste, texture and appearance of fried foods, the actual frying process is often messy due to the spattering of the oils in which foods are fried. Frying may therefore be considered somewhat inconvenient. Moreover, it has been recognized that certain disadvantages result in cooking foods in this manner. In particular, in deep-fat frying, the fat or oil in which the food is fried remains at least partially on the food and the result can be a "greasy" feel or taste to the food which is not desirable. Furthermore, there are certain health considerations due to the presence of such added fats and oils in terms of dietary considerations as well as physiological consequences of fats and oils being part of the food intake. Further still, the fats and oils in which such products are fried have limited fry lives and they may pick up off flavors or become oxidized or rancid and must, therefore, be periodically changed or elaborately processed for reuse.
In commercially prepared fried food products which are intended to be reheated by the consumer, the messiness of preparing such products may be avoided; however, the products are still fried and typically include substantial amounts of added fat in the form of oils which remain on the fried coating. The oil which remains adds significant calories to the coated, fried product. Moreover, in a commercial context, the frying of foods often presents difficulties in preparing acceptable coating compositions which provide uniform coating thicknesses and which sufficiently adhere to a product on which the coating is applied. The problems arise in that when coated foods are fried, the coating and the coated food, such as fish, cook at vastly different rates. This problem is particularly aggravated when the temperature differential of the substrate and the coating is extreme, such as the case when coating fish portions cut from a frozen block of fish. Moreover, the coatings typically have high moisture contents which, when superheated by the frying oil form steam and may cause the coating to `explode` off of the fish. Furthermore, as the fish is cooked, its moisture will be driven off at a different rate than the coating and the fish will shrink away or otherwise withdraw from the coating. The result of these effects is that portions of coated fish will have uneven coatings, some portions will have no coating at all and some will have coatings with `air gaps` between the fish and the coating. As the fish is cooled and further processed, the uneven coating has a tendency to flake or otherwise come off of the fish. Where there are concentrations of coatings or where there are `air gaps` between the coating and the fish, consumers often bite into the product expecting fried fish but, to their disappointment, encounter only fried batter. The cumulative effect of these problems is often considerable quantities of fried fish which is commercially unacceptable or otherwise substandard.
While there have been attempts to provide desired fried attributes in non-fried products, these attempts have met varying degrees of success. These products and processes may involve the addition of high fat coatings or considerable amounts of shortening and other fats which are incorporated into a batter mixture and which when cooked essentially "fries" the coating, which may also typically include a bread crumb mixture, in situ. These processes and the products have obvious disadvantages in that the total amount of fat present even after avoiding the frying step is only slightly less than if the products were actually deep-fat fried. Examples of such high fat coatings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,755,392 and 4,675,197 to Banner et al.
In recognition of changing dietary preferences, other attempts have been made to produce improved, lower fat foodstuffs which have the appearance, texture and taste of fried foods, but which have not been fried. Typically, in the case of fish and seafood based foodstuffs, which are intended to be reheated by the consumer in microwave or conventional ovens, fish fillets or sticks are cut from a processed and formed fish block. After preparation, the fish portions are typically predusted, battered and cooked, either partially, or to completion, frozen and then packed.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,438 to Rosenthal teaches the use of edible oils which may be sprayed or atomized onto the surface of a baked food product. The baked food product is exposed to high temperature heating for purposes of browning and crisping the bread crumb coating. The addition of the edible oil is for improving the ultimate mouth feel of the bread crumb coating by improving its texture. Although it includes less fat than a deep fried product, even Rosenthal involves the addition of considerable amounts of fats in the bread crumb batter which forms part of the bread crumb coating.
Other examples of attempts to produce fried-like coatings are disclosed in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,601 to Rispoli et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,485 to Lee et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,442 to Evans et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,603 to Sortwell; U.S. Pat. No. 3,586,512 to Mancuzzo; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,566 to Meyer et al.
These coatings have varying degrees of success in producing a product which is acceptable to the consumer. While they may be more conveniently prepared than fried foods, some of these coatings provide only the `oily` feel in the mouth which is associated with fried foods, while others provide only a limited `crispy` texture that frying imparts. Significantly, none of these coatings provide the natural savory and fried flavor characteristics which complement the oily feel of crispy texture to give acceptable fried-like flavor impressions. Moreover, the problems which accompany frying batter coated fish fillets are still apparent. These problems include the differences in the rates that the coatings and the coated foods cook due to differences in moisture content and the problems with proper adhesion of the coating to fish fillets. Still problematic is the shrinkage of the coated fish away from the coating and the resultant flaking of the coating that occurs during further processing. Finally, these products are lacking in that they do not provide any of the fried flavors typically associated with deep-fat frying, nor do they provide any of the savory flavor elements such cooking imparts. Thus, the flavors of these products are organoleptically inferior to the genuine savory and fried flavors achieved by deep-frying.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that it would be desirable to provide foodstuffs which have the taste, texture and appearance of a fried food, but which have not been fried. Furthermore, it would also be desirable to provide foodstuffs which have the taste, texture and appearance of a fried food which are low in added fats and which avoid the problems not adequately solved by prior art coatings and processes. Finally, it can be seen that it would be desirable to provide non-fried foodstuffs which are organoleptically equal or superior to fried foods.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a coating for non-fried foods for the purpose of providing the taste, texture and appearance of fried foods.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a coating for non-fried foods which have the taste, texture and appearance of fried foods and which avoid the problems associated with the coating and the coated foods cooking at different rates.
It is another object of this invention to provide a coating for non-fried foods which have the taste, texture and appearance of fried foods and which avoid the problems of the coating improperly adhering to the product.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a coating for non-fried foods which have the taste, texture and appearance of fried foods and which avoid the problems associated with the shrinkage of the cooked fish away from the coating.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide breaded coating for non-fried foods which have the taste, texture and appearance of fried foods and which provide natural savory and fried flavors.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide coatings for non-fried foods which have the taste, texture and appearance of fried foods by utilizing vegetable based fryer oils from other food production processes which would be otherwise discarded or which would have to be elaborately processed for reuse.